Anonymous wrote:Macalester

Macalester is a fabulous choice. Nice city with good amount of choices. Not too far from University of Minnesota, if your student wants to catch a big university sporting event or two.

We were looking for this too and there are fewer than you would think. Many have been mentioned earlier, but I thought I'd plus one:

Portland, Oregon with a population size around 650k has a few: Lewis & Clark, Reed, University of Portland though technically not a SLAC has around 4000 students so also small.
Macalester in St. Paul, about 300k population. Near other colleges too which adds to the sense of lots of resources for young people.
I would count the undergrad part of Tufts as sort of liberal arts college-ish feeling also, so near Somerville/Cambridge/Boston--hard to decide where 'urban' ends in that area.
University of Richmond, Richmond VA has around 225k people and UofR has both a nice 'removed' feel but close access. VCU creates more amenities for students.
Kalamazoo College is in a residential area a few minutes walk from downtown Kalamazoo MI, a small-to-mid sized city 75k and adjacent to Western Michigan University a large public university.
New College of Florida is in Sarasota, FL -- about 50k population--has some parts that feel urban and walkable.
There's a trend for young people/families to move to these smaller cities due to lower cost of living, desire for sense of community etc. so they are feeling trendier all the time--I noticed a difference between visiting colleges for my eldest and youngest (7 years apart)--massive growth in restaurants, breweries, coffee shops, boutiques if that's what your kid is looking for.

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Anonymous wrote:Tufts

Tufts is a University

Although a number of their professional schools are based elsewhere so the undergrad piece is a bit more self contained. But it is larger than your average SLAC.

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Anonymous wrote:

Swarthmore, Haverford, Bryn Mawr are all an easy 15 minute train ride into center city Philadelphia.

This makes them suburban.

Yes -- these are all great schools, but they feel totally suburban. My nephew, a born and bred New Yorker, just graduated from Swarthmore. He loved it, but has said that very few students do much at all in Philly.

Maybe Occidental in LA? I don't know the school or city well enough, but maybe someone else can comment.

No! Oxy is not in urban L.A. That was the last President's PR move. If you really want urban then go to USC. Oxy is many miles away from downtown L.A. in a sleepy suburb. Go and visit before you make a decision.

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Anonymous wrote:Claremont colleges in California. Reed in Portland. Colorado College, if you consider Colo Springs "urban." Univ of Richmond. Occidental. Trinity in Hartford.

The Claremont Colleges are in no way, shape, or form urban.

Yup -- I did my clerkship in Pasadena -- totally suburban -- in a nice way, but totally surburban.

Claremont is a separate city from Pasadena.

Correct — it’s a suburb of Pasadena.

'''

I hope you are trying to be funny

Anonymous wrote:For the adventurous and truly young at heart, Yale-NUS, a liberal arts college right in the middle of Singapore.

Amazing!

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Anonymous wrote:Claremont colleges in California. Reed in Portland. Colorado College, if you consider Colo Springs "urban." Univ of Richmond. Occidental. Trinity in Hartford.

The Claremont Colleges are in no way, shape, or form urban.

I wouldn't call Reed urban either. It's outside of the downtown area of Portland and very wooded.

OP asked for colleges that are in or near a 'decent size city.' Reed fits her definition even if it isn't what one might usually say is urban.

I went to Reed. It was like a 15 minute bus ride/bike ride to downtown. The neighborhood is kind of suburban in feel, but it’s very close to a lot of cool areas.

I wish there were more choices in metropolitan areas.

It is interesting to note how few truly urban LACs there are.